Tiger Woods: What We Learned About Tiger At Torrey and Where He's Headed

Tiger Woods is digging hard into his third novel in the Tiger Trilogy: Lord of the Swings.

His latest chapter was written last week at Torrey Pines, the place he can easily call home, the place he has dominated, the place where he has found it so very easy to win again, again and again and then some more, just for emphasis.

This start of the 2011 season for El Tigre was a week of huge anticipation with questions about the progress about golf's most famous reconstruction project.

When it comes to change, Woods puts Barack Obama to shame. He's gone from the Harmon Project to the Haney Project and now to the diminutive Sean Foley with hopes that this will not become Foley's Folly.

What we saw at Torrey Pines was Woods grinding away, he was good at times, but as the days went by it became more and more of a struggle for the man who used to make this game look so incredibly easy.

The Torrey Pines south course that used to be at the full mercy of Woods, simply thumbed its nose at the Reconstructive One over the weekend.

Woods struggled and struggled then struggled some more on his way to rounds of 74-75 and a one-under par finish that left him two shots behind the world's best junior amateur, 18-year-old Anthony Paolucci. Yes, the kid finished tied for 29th, Woods was tied for 44th, easily his worst professional showing at this course.

Did we read that right, Woods beaten by an amateur? At Torrey Pines?

So when was the last time Woods got smoked by a kid who hasn't even found his way to college yet?

Not sure that one's in this reality show that has become The Life and Times of Tiger Woods.

What we do know is that this first start of Woods 2011 campaign didn't look too good. "He's about 10 percent short in, well, everything," is what Nick Faldo said as he watched from the television booth.

What we do know is that Woods can still slam clubs and drop expletives better than anyone. He's in championship form there, no need for improvement in that facet of his arsenal.

Woods is also in full form when it comes to being curt and elusive with reasonable questions.

Peter Kostis had the unmitigated nerve to ask Woods about his upcoming schedule, to which Woods went right for his wise-guy script and blurted: "I'll be playing sometime in the future."

So while Kostis was left red-faced, it's pretty easy to discern where we might see the upcoming Woods sightings.

Here are the probable stops on the Tiger Woods Reconstruction Tour:

Tiger will head over to Dubai in two weeks to glad-hand the royals who forked over between $10 and $20 million to have him design a course there in the desert. It's a European Tour event and he'll also get a nice fat appearance fee from the sponsors, the Dukes of Dubai. He'll make it a royal flush with the world's No. 1 player, Lee Westwood and No. 2, Martin Kaymer in attendance.

It's doubtful he'd play at the Northern Trust at Riviera the following week, he hasn't performed well there when his game was at its major league best.

You can pencil him in at the Accenture Match Play Feb. 23-27, then perhaps Doral on March 10-13, Bay Hill (it's a long commute) March 24-27 as his tuneup for the Masters on April 7-10.

So we'll send this to Kostis to answer the question that Woods would not.

What we do know and what Woods admits is that this project has a long way to go; it's still surrounded by scaffolding.

"It takes reps and it takes reps under competition," Woods said. If that's the case, you'd figure he'd play a lot more than usual as Phil Mickelson is doing.

When you look back and see that Woods was 15 shots behind Bubba Watson's winning effort, he's nearly four shots a day behind where he needs to be if he's going to look like the winning Woods.

"I hit a lot of good shots early in the week and then it progressively got worse," was Woods observation.

The state of his game is obviously inconsistent and forget approach shots and drives, it's the Woods putter that continues to look a universe away from the one that won him all those majors. Take five key putts away from Woods' past performance and he'd have five less majors. So that is the club that will ultimately decide the future of Tiger Woods.

In the meantime, he's got the spin down when it comes to talking the talk about putting golf's version of  Humpty Dumpty back together again.

"I got committed to what I'm doing," explains Woods, "and I'm not looking back. I'm moving forward. It's commitment. It's just commitment to change and moving forward."

Which makes you wonder if Obama's speech writers have been moonlighting for Tiger Woods.